For many years industry, and particularly the transportation industry has been concerned with providing functional attributes of sealing, baffling, acoustic attenuation, sound dampening and reinforcement to articles of manufacture such as automotive vehicles. Industry has developed a wide variety of materials and parts for providing such functional attributes. Epoxy resin based compositions have been used in the materials and parts to address these issues, see for example Czaplicki et. al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,890,969; Czaplicki et. al. U.S. Pat. No. 7,473,715; Czaplicki et. al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,846,559; Czaplicki U.S. Pat. No. 6,668,457; Kassa et. al. U.S. Pat. No. 7,199,165; and Sheasly et. al. U.S. Pat. No. 7,438,782, all incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. Epoxy resin based compositions are used for many of these applications because they exhibit high glass transition temperatures and can be used in environments where the materials are exposed to high temperatures because such compositions retain their integrity in such environments. Epoxy resin compositions can be brittle, have low ductility, and can fracture if subjected to elongation. Epoxy resin compositions are modified to include toughening agents to improve ductility and/or elastomers to improve epoxy resin compositions response to elongation. The problem with modifying epoxy resin compositions with toughening agents and elastomers is that such materials reduce the glass transition temperature of the compositions. Examples of additives used in epoxy resin compositions are disclosed in Muelhaupt U.S. Pat. No. 5,030,698; Muelhaupt U.S. Pat. No. 5,140,069; Schenkel U.S. Pat. No. 6,776,869; Schoenfeld et. al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,884,854 and Longo WO 2006/076341, all incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
Thus, what is needed is systems that can modify epoxy resin based compositions to improve ductility and the elongation properties of the compositions without reducing the glass transition temperature of the compositions. What are also needed are systems wherein the functional properties of the epoxy resin compositions are retained; for example foam, adhesive, film, and coating properties and the like.